Chromebooks to become new netbooks

As of last year, Cromebooks can run on ARM based processors and in 2013 we are hearing that many manufacturers plan to release their inexpensive Chromebooks.

The general idea is to market these inexpensive machines that will enable some basic computing and in most cases an ARM processor is good enough for such tasks. The idea is that Chromebooks should take over the market from netbooks as they should offer more for the money.

This will be a tough fight as in the 10-inch market Atom based netbooks usually come with Windows 7 or potentially even Windows 8. Their processors run practically every Windows application out there.

Chromebooks won't be able to run Windows applications, but for basic non-Word stuff, spreadsheets, Facebook and internet, any Cromebook should be enough.

Qualcomm and Samsung already have their processors in Chromebooks and Nvidia will join them, too. Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 can do the job.

Acer’s 11.6-inch Cromebook sells for as little as $199 at BestBuy making it really attractive for budget users. Some of them are listed here.